Duane Betts playing with Dawes

I if you saw Letterman Wednesday night you would have seen Dawes performing a song from the new LP. Also you'd have seen a second guitarist. I had no idea who he was.

Today I photographed Dawes at a live taping at a NY radio station. The second guitarist is Duane Betts. I was talking to him about his very nice very checked Goldtop. He was explaining the neck break and repair and mentioned it was his dad's signature prototype. Your dad I said? He turned it over and I saw on the headstock "DB" and it hit me as he was telling me just who his dad was.

Very nice humble young man. He fits right in. Apparently he and Taylor have known each other and played a long time.

The before sound check noodling, playing over the chord changes for a song called " Don't send me away" showed he's very melodic and makes that neck pickup (set very low BTW) just sing like his daddy did.

yeah this was cool. actually, Duane was one of the founding members of (the band now known as) Dawes. When they originally started the band it was called "Simon Dawes" - along with Roy Orbison's son Alex - this was back probably around 2002/2003ish in Malibu, CA. They played gigs around LA for years and I believe even toured. At the same time, Duane was also fronting the band Whitestarr, which was eventually signed by Atlantic, toured for a while with Kid Rock, etc. He is the greatest guy around - and a heck of a guitar player.

Anyone know if he will be touring with them regularly in support of this new album? As far as I can tell he didn't record with them but I honestly don't know. I am a big Dawes fan and if anyone has more info I am all ears!